Colonial Cemetery, Savannah: An Illustrated Article

Ken and I were wandering around the historic district in Savannah, snapping pictures. I was particularly wanting pictures of the squares that the original city planners built Savannah around. One of the first ones we came to had a playground, with swings and slides. "Let's walk throuh here," I said, "and see what's behind it." I could feel something calling to me, but I didn't know why. So we walked through the playground, and this feeling hit me..boom! "Where in the world am I?" I exclaimed, and then I looked down, and saw a tombstone.

I've been in Colonial Cemetery before, but always through the main entrance,  never from the back. Where else but Savannah could you walk through a small playground and be in a cemetery?

Colonial Cemetery is the second oldest cemetery in Savannah. Many heroes of the Revolutionary War are buried there, including Button Gwinnett, duellist and signer of the Declaration of Independence.

In appearance, it seems very  like a park, only with gravestones and tombs.

During the War Between the States, the Union soldiers decided it would be fun to randomly remove gravestones and set them up on the wall. They still remain there to this day. If you read the inscriptions there and at other places in the cemetery, you will discover that they also altered dates, so that one man died before he was born and one husband and father died age two, and so on.

Savannah has many graveyards that are well worth a visit, but don't miss Colonial Cemetery. You can't miss it. It's the only one with a playground.